Skillsoft an American educational technology company that produces learning management system software and content - has recently conducted research, using global user data that have accessed security assets in Skillsoft’s learning experience platform, and seeing how organizations and their employees are engaging in security training. This is following the event of Cybersecurity Awareness Month last October. 
It showed that 2021 has been a true inflection point for security learning and development (L&D) in corporate environments.  

Cybersecurity training: Increase in hours and consumption 

Companies are now significantly investing in cyber security training. There has been  a 53% increase in the total number of hours that trainees spent on security training content and courses since 2019. 
It significantly increases more time with cybersecurity training than ever before due to various reasons, such as for professional development, to increase awareness of threats and learn risk mitigation best practices, to pivot career paths, or simply build skills sets. 

This is based on the trend observation from 2019 and each month in 2021, except for January, and it showed that there is a significantly higher rate of consumption for security training and education assets across all levels of expertise.

The study analyzed 25 industries categorized from aerospace to banking and finance and even medical; it showed that two in three (60%) of all companies saw that there is an increase of hours spent by learners annually on security training in . 2020 compared in 2021 with a rise of 80%.

Here are the top five industries that have seen the largest relevant content consumption with an average of 59% year over year growth trajectory:

1. Legal
2. Energy and utilities 
3. Healthcare
4. Training & development
5. Non-profit 

Security pre-certifications a hot commodity 

Since the amount of security training is increasing, the study also looked into where the time is being spent.

Here is the most frequently completed security course in 2021 attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic spurring the rapid global shift to cloud.

• OWASP Top 10 related lessons take the lead spot (Open Web Application Security Project),
• cloud security fundamentals.

CompTIA Security+ pre-certification courses, ranging from social engineering techniques to basic cryptography principles; fall short from the top 10.

Security training best practices

 
Even beyond the Cybersecurity Awareness Month, security professionals are encouraged to maintain a mindset of continuous learning and curiosity.
Keys to building a lasting culture of cybersecurity include: 

• Outlining each employees’ role for common goals and objectives rather than being a dependent.
• Adopt a blended learning approach, it is a combination of course content with real-world scenarios, practice labs, and team-oriented lessons;
• Motivate employees to aim for certifications to expand skill sets and become more cyber-aware, and reduce skills gaps; and
• Support and provide employees with the tools they needed to train and upskill in their natural flow of work.